He Who Remains in 'Loki' Might Not Quite Be the Character You Think
Hey. Marvel fans. We just wanted to check in on you. It's been some time since the Loki finale that just about set up Marvel's entire future, followed by the news that we're getting a second season of the show. A crazy stretch, we know. But we also know that you can't help but fall back down the rabbit hole.
So, when you're ready, we have a bit of insight from the finale that we think you'll want to wake out of your Marvel coma to learn about. You know how Loki's final episode introduced us to Jonathan Majors's "He Who Remains," the villain who is confirmed to turn back up in 2023 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Well, we were all so sure that "He Who Remains," a.k.a the dude sitting at the end of time, handing out job opportunities to Sylvie and Loki, is the iconic Marvel villain Kang the Conquerer. He definitely is! Kind of. Almost. Turns out the man we met in the Loki finale might be a slightly different version of Kang. Let us explain.
Based on the story "He Who Remains" told SylvLoki (?)—a 31st-Century scientist discovers the multiverse, makes buddies with himself, then fights thousands of versions of himself—that guy most definitely matches up with Kang, a.k.a. Nathaniel Richards's comic book story. But, if you dig a little deeper, there's a Kang variant from the comics who goes by the name Immortus. Introduced early in the '60s, Immortus is a variant of Kang who is older in age. Basically, he's like the Old Man Logan of the Kang character—i.e. after a life spent fighting his damn self, he's looking at things a little differently. A little nicer. A bit less genocidal. In the comics, the Time Keepers say they'll make him immortal if he helps them regulate the timelines. Why are we pointing this out? Well, going forward, it's going to be important that we keep our Kangs straight, considering that Loki teased that a literal infinite amount are coming to the MCU. There's even a younger version of Kang that puts on the Iron Man armor and becomes a superhero named Iron Lad, but we'll save that story for another day.
That's all you need to know for now. Please sleep this weekend. Don't think about superheroes. And stay off Reddit for us, OK?
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